Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1887-03-18
RAILROADS AS cIyILIzERs.


The Railroads." and spoke as fol-
lows:
"There is view of railroads and
civilization which is obvious to oil,
the great difference between the rail
road when it first goes INTO bushes S
as civilizer, and when it has become
fully established i'll business. Of nil
newcomers who ever visit commun-
ity, your new railroad is tho most
welcome, The people lavish their
money upon it. They invite it to ell
ter and possess their fertile fields
They make their lordly forests pay it
tribute. They even suffer it to mako
its highway through the very gardens
OF flowers tended by their wives and
daughters and to fume AMI to shrek
ut the very doors of the homes Of
their children. It is welcome rs II
bringer of wealth and intelligence-as
the great civilizer. But once firmly
established among them, the stranger
SO royalty welcomed, becomes the
hated and the outcast of all. This un
varying progression of tho railroad
from high favor and deep hatred
finds, rs far as l know, no parallel
elsewhere i'll nature or in nrt. III M
ture, light of day is followed by the
darkness OF the night, but the stars
for the most part make riffs in the
darkness. In tho history of humnni-
ty youth is swallowed up by age, but
age may have its Accomplishments of
respect and honor. The queen of love
and beauty may lose her charms and
be deserted by her worshipers, but
she is not transformed from throne
to pillory. The politician may cease
to be the hero and the idol of the peo.
pie, but he does not generally pass
from Office to tue chningang, though,
perhaps, he ought generally to do so.
Indeed, in this uniform transition OH
the railroad from honor to dishonor.
it is entirely unique. But notwiLhi
standing the tone of humility which,
as prosecuted railroad lawyer, / afp
driven to assume in the courthouse, z
would say here, if L am permitted to-
say it confidentially to this compnnys
not to go any further, but to remain
under the sacred protection of the
rose which hangs over the festive
board, I would say 1 believe in my
heart that the railroad is the great
ci'ilizer of the age. On moro grave
occasion, not great while ago, it be-
came incumbent upon me to make n
few brief utterances, i'll all serious
ness, on this same subject, said
then, as 1 say now, I'VE will better
understand what the railroad is by
taking n glance Mt n country, highly
favored by nature, but unprecedented
by tho iron road. We select our own
goodly land and imagine the railroad
map obliterated. The rich minerals.
scarcely concealed from view, contin
ue their dntefess sleep. The magni-
ficent timber except where it skirts
some stream capable of floating it to
the sea, falls where it grew, useless
to man. In parts unvisited by rail.
roads the waste is greatest where the
harvest Is heaviest, and golden grain
perlshes Ill the field, though countless
hungry mouths elsewhere in the
world clamor for bread. The rivers
ere increased, save by the ferrybont
and the fold. The forests are practi
cally painless, and the pruiries bound
less. A little meagre intelligence fill
tiers slow and late through the Sc.
questered land, and the outer world
is for away and unknown.
"'But the railroad comes. and all
is changed. The time has arrived
when the coal and iron must leave
their ancient beds, the forests yield
their treasures to civilized man, the
products of every field find the con-
sumner, wherever in The world he may
be; the rivers are spanned; the will
derness Is traversed; space is ami
hilated; busy towns grow up where
before there were silence and soil
tude, and the strong heat of the
worlds heart is felt wherever the
great civilizer comes"
rheumatism and NEURALGIA